


Some Kind of Redemption

by Shiny and Zinc (Adira_Tyree)



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies), Mad Max: Fury Road
Genre: Gen, Hope is a mistake, Insanity, Memories, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-27
Updated: 2015-05-27
Packaged: 2018-04-01 14:44:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4023805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adira_Tyree/pseuds/Shiny%20and%20Zinc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Max knows what that kind of scream translates as, and he doesn't want to remember. [drabble]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Some Kind of Redemption

**Author's Note:**

> I was watching MM:FR again and this just sort of _happened_. I doubt this'll be a regular thing? I plan to stick to Fallout when it comes to fic writing, but we'll see what happens.

       He knows that bone-crushing pain when he looks at her, hears her scream and knows every word of it like the back of his own hand. None of them need to tell it to him, what they said that ripped it from her; he saw the trees and the crows. He knew the night before when they drove through it. Didn’t say anything because he ~~hoped~~ ( _don’t hope, hope is dangerous_ ) wanted to be wrong. For her sake. Wouldn’t wish that torment on anyone. Max knows what torment is already. Doesn’t need to be told, shown, doesn’t need to hear it.

       And there would be nothing that any of them could do about it for her. The closest would be to convince her that redemption wasn’t fully lost to her, that she could still find that _green place_ in her own mind if she worked hard enough. But there was no point in lying. Hard work brought nothing but ash in the wastes, ash to pile higher the endless sand dunes and darken the deep salt-flats.

       So when she finally returns, tells him that he can come or go or stay as he likes, he says he’ll go – but not with them. Doesn’t want to watch any longer as this little party tears itself apart trying to find a life that doesn’t exist anymore. Doesn’t want to be reminded of his own pain by the memory of her scream.

_help us, max_

       Hope is a mistake.

       "If you can’t fix what’s broken, you’ll..." the words falter as he tries not to remember, but the sheer vastness of the open desert is too empty to distract him, "...you’ll go insane."

_why didn’t you help us, max_

       Still, he lingers. Watches the salt and the dust spout up from the ground beneath their tires. The constant chanting of drugged-up warboys in the back of his mind: v8, v8, v8. The drone of Vulvalini engines in the distance. The harsh words of a long-dead child.

_you promised to help us, max_

       So he doesn’t hope. But he offers it to them.

_you promised, max_


End file.
